What happened to Clearbit Connect? The full timeline.
Clearbit Connect — the Chrome and Outlook add-in that enriched email senders — sunsetted in 2024. Here's what happened, what came next, and how to replace it.
Clearbit Connect was the add-in that introduced a generation of B2B sellers to enrichment. Install it in Chrome or Outlook, open an email, and within seconds you'd see the sender's job title, company size, industry, and LinkedIn URL — all overlaid on Gmail or Outlook. Free for up to 100 lookups per month. Practical, beloved, and now gone.
This post is the full timeline: how Clearbit Connect came to be, what HubSpot did with it after the 2023 acquisition, why it was sunset, and what teams that relied on it can migrate to in 2026.
Timeline: 2015 to 2024
- 2015 — Clearbit Connect launches as a Gmail extension. Free tier: 100 monthly lookups. Instant sender enrichment on every email.
- 2016-2019 — Connect becomes the default sales-rep tool. Outlook add-in launched. Enterprise features added for paid customers.
- 2020-2022 — Growth continues. Competitors emerge (Apollo Chrome extension, Lusha) but Connect keeps the free-tier lead.
- November 2023 — HubSpot announces acquisition of Clearbit for an undisclosed amount, reportedly $150M+.
- Early 2024 — First signs of integration: Clearbit Connect gets rebranded as part of HubSpot's 'Breeze Intelligence' suite. Free tier quietly restricted.
- Mid-2024 — Clearbit Connect for Chrome and Outlook enters 'maintenance mode'. No new features, bug fixes only.
- December 2024 — Clearbit Connect officially sunsets. Users are migrated to HubSpot Breeze Intelligence — only available as part of HubSpot Enterprise tiers.
- 2025-2026 — Legacy free users lose access. Third-party alternatives emerge to fill the gap.
Why did it sunset?
Three reasons, in rough order of importance:
- HubSpot's business model doesn't need a free add-in. HubSpot monetizes through seat-based pricing on the CRM. A free enrichment add-in that works for non-HubSpot customers makes no revenue sense once HubSpot owns it.
- Enrichment data costs money. Clearbit's free tier was subsidized by paid Enterprise customers. HubSpot removed the subsidy and rolled Connect's functionality into a higher-tier paid offering ('Breeze Intelligence').
- The product had drifted. By 2023, Clearbit Connect's data coverage had fallen behind newer providers — the free-tier ceiling kept improvements limited, and the Enterprise API had cannibalized the Connect user base.
What HubSpot offers now (Breeze Intelligence)
HubSpot's replacement — Breeze Intelligence — is available only on HubSpot's higher tiers (Professional and Enterprise). It offers similar enrichment functionality to the old Connect, but the entry price is effectively the cost of a HubSpot Professional seat ($450+/month per seat) plus the Breeze Intelligence add-on. For teams that weren't HubSpot customers already, this is not a replacement — it's a sunset.
What to migrate to in 2026
Three categories of alternatives have emerged for teams that used Clearbit Connect:
- Native CRM add-ins for other CRMs — Apollo's Chrome extension, Lusha, ContactOut. Usable, but each is locked into its own database.
- Outlook and Gmail-native replacements — ListPlus for Outlook is the direct replacement for the Outlook flow. Sender enrichment, LinkedIn lookup, company data — same UX, in the Microsoft AppSource store.
- Workflow-based enrichment — Clay, ListPlus, Apollo used via API or CRM sync. Not inside the email client, but cheaper per enrichment and scriptable for bulk workflows.
For the Outlook flow specifically
If you used Clearbit Connect inside Outlook — which was a big slice of the user base, especially at enterprise companies — ListPlus for Outlook is the closest replacement. It's a Microsoft AppSource add-in: install from the store, open any email, and the ListPlus taskpane shows the sender's name, job title, company details, and LinkedIn URL. Same UX, waterfall across 15+ providers instead of Clearbit's single data set, and pay-when-found pricing instead of seat-based.
What about the Clearbit API?
Clearbit's developer API is still accessible but deprecated — HubSpot has rolled it into the Breeze Intelligence offering. Existing Clearbit API keys continue to work for now, but no new sign-ups are possible, and pricing has shifted to enterprise-only tiers. If you're building on the Clearbit API today, plan migration within 6-12 months.
Lessons from Connect's sunset
The Connect story is a warning for anyone relying on a single-vendor free tier. Free tiers in B2B tooling are subsidized by paid customers — and once the business model changes (acquisition, pivot, or competitive pressure), the free tier goes first. The generation of sellers who relied on Connect for 10 years learned this in late 2024.
The replacement tools that win in 2026 are the ones with sustainable pricing models: pay-when-found enrichment (you only pay when data is returned), bring-your-own-API-keys (the provider charges the user directly at volume rates), or workspace-level pricing (you pay for the workspace, not per seat). All three models sidestep the Connect trap.